Benjamin Harrison V

Benjamin Harrison V (5 April 1726-24 April 1791) was Governor of Virginia from 1 December 1781 to 1 December 1784, succeeding Thomas Nelson, Jr. and preceding Patrick Henry. Harrison was the father of United States president William Henry Harrison and the great-grandfather of President Benjamin Harrison.

Biography
Benjamin Harrison was born in Charles City County, Virginia in 1726, the eldest son of Benjamin Harrison IV. His father was struck by lightning and killed in 1745, and the younger Harrison inherited the bulk of his father's estate. He followed his father in representing Charles City and Surry in the House of Burgesses and also served as a county justice. In 1770, he agreed upon a boycott of British imports until Parliament repealed its taxes on tea, and, in 1774, he was selected as one of Virginia's delegates to the First Continental Congress. He was conservative and more distant from the radical New Englanders, especially the Adams family, and Harrison aligned with John Hancock against Adams and Richard Henry Lee. At the Second Continental Congress, he signed the US Declaration of Independence. In October 1777, he returned to Virginia and retained the Speakership of the House of Burgesses until 1780. After the end of the Siege of Yorktown in 1781, Harrison became Governor of Virginia, serving until 1784. He opposed the US Constitution because of the absence of a "Bill of Rights", and he died in 1791.